How much have the Saudis invested in Silicon Valley?
Billions of dollars. In the past five years, Saudi investors have participated directly in investment rounds totaling at least $ 6.2 billion. Since the exact composition of each round is not public, it is not possible to say how much of this money came directly from the Saudis compared to other investors participating in the rounds. But the Saudis are among the greatest writers of checks in the world.

As the kingdom diversified its wealth away from the decline in oil reserves, petrodollars have been channeled to Western companies. After signing only one of these agreements in 2009, at least a dozen investments have been registered per year since 2012.

These direct investments add to the role of Saudi Arabia as one of the world’s largest limited partners supporting investment funds. Two investments of $ 45 billion in SoftBank’s risk funds over the past three years have instantly made him one of the world’s leading financial players in the world of risk.

Who is making the investment?
Saudi Arabia’s money is in multiple funds with global ambitions. One of the largest is the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which said it plans to grow from about $ 100 billion today to $ 2 billion by 2030. Among public funds that invest in US companies, the main ones tracked by Private equity research firms are listed below.

What are they investing their money in?
Since 2008, it shows that the Saudis are moving away from industrial sectors, such as chemicals and materials, in favor of technology such as augmented reality and shared travel platforms such as Lyft and Uber. The country’s state-owned oil company, ARAMCO, led the push towards industrialists, but the most recent funds, such as the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, focus on technology.

Many of the investments have been made in renowned operations. Even Tesla was in talks, finally abandoned, with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund for a massive deal of $ 80 billion or so to take Tesla privately. The biggest offers of the last two years have been investment rounds that support the new Silicon Valley companies. The main investment rounds with Saudi participation are listed below.

  • Uber – Shared travel platform $ 11,321
  • Lyft – Shared Travel Platform $ 4,915
  • Magic Leap – Augmented reality $ 1,888
  • Lucid Motors – Car manufacturer  $ 1,131
  • Virgin Galactic – Aerospace $ 280
  • Desktop metal – Manufacturing $ 273
  • Beamreach – Solar Energy $ 239
  • Snap – Social media network $ 250
  • Siluria Technologies – Oil and gas $ 151
  • Digital Signal – Facial Recognition Technology $ 125
  • Rive Technology – Oil and gas $ 85